1. Find the 3 key parts in this statement
‘The relationship in the play that best explains Hamlet’s tragic demise is the one between him and Gertrude’
Find the 3 key parts in this statement
Unpick each of them: how do you respond to them? What different interpretations could there be?
Select your view on this statement in light of the annotations and write your own line of argument in 30 words…

2. Relationship:
- Hamlet & Claudius – the marriage is what causes his demise – fury at betraying his father - Mouse-trap (3.2) – acts out his father’s death – “the lady doth protest too much methinks” - Hamlet’s relationship with himself and his pursuit of revenge – lack of certainty and self-confidence – he sets up the demise of everyone else… Soliloquies
- The Ghost – arrival as in most of Act 1 – the main interaction shows how Hamlet was quick to follow the Ghost and take – “O horrible, horrible” – Hamlet mirrors the language of the Ghost
‘The relationship in the play that best explains Hamlet’s tragic demise is the one between him and Gertrude’
Gertrude - The ending shows Hamlet watch everyone else die, including Gertrude - Offered the drink but doesn’t take it – suspicious - Drinking of the poison herself in attempt to protect Hamlet - Act 3 Scene 4 – Hamlet’s murder of Polonius – Gertrude’s role is to agitate him – she maintains being ‘in league’ with Claudius - Betrayal on the behalf of Gertrude  1.2 – “cast thy knighted colour off – look like a friend on Denmark”
demise - Death – Hamlet’s own death - Mental stability – - Nobility – “O what a noble mind is here o’erthrown”  “cracked”, “noble heart” - Relationships  Ophelia  Gertrude
Year 13 example

3. ‘The relationship in the play that best explains Hamlet’s tragic demise is the one between him and Gertrude’
Class co-constructed: Undeniably, Hamlet’s relationship with his mother is integral to the vengeful journey that he pursues; however, the ultimate cause of his tragic demise (death) is his inability to face up to the more complex relationship with himself. Paragraph 1 – Gertrude & Hamlet 1.2 – Strained relationship – first words spoken exemplify his resentment towards her in public – incestuous marriage  presentation of Gertrude as a mother that has betrayed her son - “cast thy knighted colour off – look like a friend on Denmark” Act 3 Scene 4  ‘I will speak daggers to her but use none’  ‘Thou wilt not murder me?’ – ‘Alas he is mad’ – but is Gertrude to blame for what he then does after that? Paragraph 2 – Hamlet’s madness is a reaction to Gertrude’s actions, but his demise comes from his inability to face up to his relationship with his own identity Soliloquy – Act 2 Scene 2 – creates his plan  ‘Oh what an ass am I’  ‘must like a whore unpack my heart with words’ Misogyny – self-deprecating thoughts – lacks ownership of his own actions  ‘Shuffle off this mortal coil’ ‘whether tis nobler in the mind / to suffer the slings and arrows of misfortune’ (Gertrude & Claudius are one of those ‘arrows’ he must bear but does not Paragraph 3 – When we witness Hamlet’s demise – in the arms of Horatio – he himself recognises that his demise could have been avoided, had he sought public justice instead of private Dies in Horatio’s arms – antithesis of Hamlet – sheds his antic disposition because that is the only person he has truly spoken to throughout…’what a wounded name / Things standing thus unknown, shall I leave behind me!’ (5.2) Exemplified through Fortinbras’ comments on Hamlet in the final lines of the play – “had he been put on, / Could have proved most royal’ (5.2)

4. What do you think of this criticism?
Hamlet in some ways represents an Elizabethan stock character known as a "malcontent." A malcontent is a figure whose perspective of life is so pessimistic that he holds nothing but contempt for the world and humanity. In Act V, Hamlet reaches his highest point of excitement through his "hysterical“ struggle with Laertes during the sword fight, and this emotion enables him to take revenge in the final catastrophe. Thus, Campbell concludes, Hamlet's revenge "ironically appears, not as an act of solemn retribution, but as an uncalculated result of the frantic brandishing of a murderous sword.“
‘What is the matter with Hamlet?’, Oscar James Campbell (1943)

5. One could argue that Hamlet’s strained relationship with his mother plays an important role in his pursuit of revenge and the play’s catastrophic ending; however, the ultimate cause of his tragic demise (death) is Hamlet’s obsessive relationship with the Ghost and his inability to hatch a definitive plan of action.
Gertrude, inarguably, plays a part in Hamlet’s tragic state; however, I disagree that she causes the permanent demise of Hamlet – in fact she delays his death. I believe that his relationship with Polonius is what pushed Hamlet to a point of no return, as Polonius causes both his own and Ophelia’s death; his meddling disrupts the plan that Hamlet had initially formed.